Apeel Sciences plans to bring its shelf-life extending technology to European avocado marketer Nature’s Pride.
The partnership is aimed at reducing food waste through Apeel’s plant-derived food waste prevention technology; in the U.S., it has demonstrated a greater than 50% waste reduction at retail, according to a news release.
“We are constantly looking for improvements in our value chain to provide our customers with the highest quality and most tasty products,” Adriëlle Dankier, chief commercial officer of Nature’s Pride, said in the release. “With Apeel, we share the same values: we are both pioneering and passionate about reducing food waste, and we want to work collaboratively with others to solve this problem.”
Nature’s Pride, based in The Netherlands, supplies avocados and mangoes to Europe. The company’s plans for using Apeel’s technology is subject to European Union approval, according to the release. Pilots are expected to start in mid-2019 in select European retail stores.
Apeel Sciences has hired three people to support demand in the U.S. and elsewhere, according to the release:
- Mike Tucker — Team leader of buyer relations, to oversee the group working with retailers and wholesalers to grow Apeel programs and introduce new products. He has more than a decade of experience on the buying side with Target, and most recently was retail category manager for Sakata Seed America.
- Chayla Balko — Senior account executive on buyer relations team. Most recently, Balko was business development manager at Golden Sun Marketing, and has been a business development representative and key account manager at The Oppenheimer Group, bringing more than 15 years of experience in the food and beverage industry.
- Michele Visser — Director of supplier relations, working closely with grower-suppliers. Visser most recently was vice president of sales for Aplos Software, and has been senior account manager for produce-focused Famous Software.
